"Go! Don't give up, everybody! This is the final attack on the Demonic Emperor!"

The incursion at Viridian Village was just foreshadowing the massive assault that the Kingdom of Havan was launching on the Demonic Empire. Shortly after we had defeated the small battalion of orcs and dark mages there, we linked up with the larger group and launched an all-out assault on the castle of the Demonic Emperor.

The Havan army had prepared at least twenty thousand soldiers to assault the fortress of the demons. The seven Hero parties were present, including Herman's, and they were spread out amongst the regiments. Each hero was to lead roughly three thousand soldiers and knights, and fight their way into the throne room.

It was not an easy battle. Having received intelligence regarding the human assault, the Demonic Emperor had recalled his Twelve Divine Generals and posted them on the defense. According to information from spies inside the demon's castle, not all of them responded to his summons, but it made little difference.

The Demonic Emperor was a godlike entity. Even without his Divine Generals, he remained a formidable foe.

"Ugh!"

"Priest! Over here! Soldier down!"

"Argh!"

"NOOO!"

Spells were exchanged from both sides and explosions rocked the exterior of the fortress, fireballs, icicles, lightning, wind blades, earth spikes and a myriad of arcane projectiles hailing down on both humans and demons alike. Monstrosities emerged from nightmarish depths to crush, scythe and devour screaming human soldiers, dark mages and elves continued to feverishly cast spells to oppose the arrows and magic of humans. Holy barriers and shields made of esoteric elements shimmered, weathering the onslaught, but in many places they were ruptured and scores of human warriors perished.

The dark mages and elves maintained their own elemental barriers too, but they weren't immortal. Elves who had lived for centuries died in instants when fireballs detonated within their midst, or lightning sn.a.k.e.d through their ranks. Dark mages convulsed as icicles punched through them or earth spikes impaled them from below. Even the shadows were not idle, assassins lashing out on both sides to take out key commanders.

"We are close now! Do not falter!" Herman ordered, swinging his sword. A few orcs were blasted off their feet, unable to withstand his blow. A titanic troll lumbered out, pulverizing scores of soldiers with each sweep of its club until Bradley hurried forward to parry its weapon.

The momentary distraction was more than enough. Jumping high into the air, Herman then decapitated the troll. It blinked stupidly, then its head fell off its shoulders and crushed a couple of orcs unfortunate enough to be nearby.

"High Priestess," a captain begged Irene. "My men are in need of healing. If you could spare a bit of your time…"

"No," Irene replied sharply. "My comrades need me at the front. Without my blessings, we can't break through."

Dismissing the captain, she hastened forward, blessing both Herman and Bradley and augmenting their strength. Disgusted, I paused in my bombardment of the rear lines and turned toward the captain.

"Where?"

He gawked at me, aware that I couldn't cast healing spells. Nonetheless, he led me to where the wounded were. I grimaced at the stink of decaying flesh and infection, but did not stop. Casting ice magic, I stemmed the bleeding and slowed infections. Obviously using ice would cause gangrene or frostbite, so I had to manipulate my ice magic and turned it into clean, pure water to wash their wounds, so as to reduce the risk of infection.

"I'm sorry. This is the best I can do."

"No, it's more than enough." The captain looked grateful. "A small contingent of priests will be coming over to cast healing spells. You've bought them enough time and mitigate the injuries. They will be able to fight again shortly."

"I hope we don't have to fight for much longer," I muttered. The captain nodded sympathetically.

"Don't we all?"

"Klein! What are you doing?!" Herman shouted from the front. An orc rushed at him, but an arrow from Yvonne obliterated its head before it could reach him, dropping it instantly. "Leave the soldiers! We have to break through this gate! Vincent is just beyond here! We must defeat him if we are to have any chance of breaching the palace and defeating the Demonic Emperor!"

Honestly, that sounded like a tall order. Vincent Lucard, the Lord of Vampires, was one of the twelve Divine Generals who served as the Demonic Emperor's right hand. Each of the Divine Generals were said to be as strong as the Heroes themselves, leading their own dreaded legion of countless nightmarish horrors to flood the human kingdom in death and destruction.

As powerful and skilled as Herman was, I didn't know if he could win against Vincent. Well, he was the Hero, blessed by the gods themselves and chosen by the heavens. However, even if he did triumph over Vincent, he would undoubtedly sustain serious injuries and exhaust his mana. How were we supposed to fight the Demonic Emperor after that?

The more I thought about it, the more foolhardy this venture seemed. No wonder Irene was preserving her mana – she probably intended to use it all to heal Herman later, after the fierce battle against Vincent. However, as miraculous as healing spells were at removing injuries and saving lives, they did not restore stamina or alleviate exhaustion. Herman would have to push himself to the limits, as would the other Heroes.

"We can't let the other Heroes beat us to the Demonic Emperor," Herman growled. "We have to be the ones to take him down! But before we do that, we have to defeat Vincent!"

"Yeah!" Bradley shouted.

"I'll try to destroy the gates!" Miranda said, raising both of her hands. A gigantic boulder materialized and crashed into the armored structure, but they refused to give way. Gritting her teeth, Miranda swung her boulder back again before smashing it against the gates once more.

While she focused on smashing aside the gates, I covered her with a barrage of icicles. Orc archers and dark mages fell from the ramparts, frost rapidly expanding across their bodies. Closing my eyes, I summoned an iceberg and hurled it at the gates as well, but it shattered. Even so, the frozen shrapnel was enough to tear apart any demons that were guarding the exterior, flooding the trenches with blood.

"Again!"

Miranda finally smashed the gates open after the tenth try. Once the walls were breached, Herman hurtled inside, leading the way.

"Follow me!" he hollered, and the soldiers followed suit, their blades slick with blood as they backed their way forward. Bradley grinned as he cleaved a huge hound the size of an elephant, his axe smashing its skull.

Alan slipped in, his daggers gleaming as he cut through mutant spawn with too many limbs and tongues protruding from circular jaws ringed with fangs. Yvonne hunted the abominations from afar, and then closed the distance, drawing a short sword for close combat. She met up with Herman, who was busily protecting Miranda and Irene. Not that those two required any protection, what with their shimmering walls of holy power or wind.

"We are in!" Herman cried triumphantly as he rushed in. However, he was forced to skid to a stop when something lanced toward it. If it weren't for Irene, who conjured a holy barrier, he would have been impaled in the chest. He glanced at her and smiled. "Thank you, my love."

"Your love?!" Yvonne exclaimed darkly, her eyes narrowing.

"Not fair!" Miranda shouted. "Did you get one up over us, Irene?"

"All is fair in love and war," Irene replied with a mischievous giggle. "Do you want me to heal your injuries or not?"

That shut the two other girls up. Especially since they were currently being bombarded by a network of blood stakes.

"Ugh!"

"Argh!"

The soldiers who followed us in weren't as lucky, however. They found themselves mired in a deathtrap as vampires sprang from the shadows, slicing them apart with claws and blood magic. Wh.i.p.s made of blood, red stakes or crimson spears lashed out from all directions, cutting the poor humans down like chaff.

"You…!"

Herman had seen his target and was fighting his way toward him. Irene's blessings glowed fiercely around him, protecting him from lethal strikes and blood weapons. He cleaved through two vampires who lunged at him, his sword cutting their bodies apart. Despite their powerful regenerative abilities that vampires were known for, the holy magic seared their corpses and ensured that they didn't recover.

Their lord, on the other hand, feared no such thing. Vincent Lucard met Herman with a long, crimson spear, their two weapons colliding in a shower of arcane sparks. Shockwaves billowed from their exchange, knocking down both humans and vampires alike.

The soldiers fought valiantly, but they were completely outmatched despite support from Bradley, Miranda, Yvonne and Alan. Even though their blades found purchase, punching through the chests of vampires or stabbing through them, the vampires' regenerative abilities bordered on monstrous. Severed limbs reattached themselves almost instantly, blood flowed back to bleeding injuries and wounds that would have been fatal to a normal human closed up and mended in seconds.

In contrast, the human nights and soldiers possessed no such advantage. They were slowly but surely being butchered.

"F.u.c.k this! Are they immortal?!" Bradley bellowed as he swung his axe to decapitate the vampires. Apparently, despite their insane regenerative abilities, destroying their heads was the only sure way of killing them. Bradley had some success, but many of his opponents became wise to his attack patterns and avoided the lethal strikes to their heads. The brawny, renowned warrior staggered when a couple of vampires slashed him from behind.

By the time he turned to retaliate, they were gone, using their incredible speed to dart away or their magic to disappear into shadows. Bradley snarled in frustration, flailing with his axe but making little headway.

Fortunately, he had me to provide support, and I deflected a few blood claws or lances that would have killed him instantly if I allowed them to puncture through his chest or face. Instead, they were deflected to the side by my ice barriers. Bradley glanced at me and grunted – though it didn't seem to be from gratitude.

I frowned, not understanding what his problem was, then returned to entombing a few more vampires in ice.

"You guys should retreat," I told the soldiers, who were suffering horrendous casualties. "You're only throwing yourselves into the meat grinder pointlessly."

"Hey! Who are you to make that decision?!" Miranda snapped at me. I gave her a dry stare.

"You do realize that the more blood spilled here, the more advantageous it is for the vampires? Their blood magic grows more powerful the more they have access to blood. You want to hand a sea of blood over to them?"

"Kuh…!" the dark-haired mage was unable to refute, and she turned away with a "hmph!"

"They are too tough to kill," Alan grumbled as he deflected a blood blade with his daggers. "Even cutting their throats open doesn't guarantee a kill."

I entombed another couple of vampires in blocks of ice. Realizing that merely striking them with icicles wasn't enough, I decided to nullify their regenerative abilities by freezing and incapacitating them. That way, they remained alive but immobilized, unable to fight until they thawed out. Which would be very much later.

We continued fighting on furiously, locked in stalemate with the regenerating vampires. Our greater magic and skills gave us an edge in combat, but our opponents proved unnaturally tenacious. Neither of us was able to seize an advantage over the other, but both parties couldn't afford to retreat.

And so we fought on grimly and determinedly, until one side broke. I didn't know if it was a good idea to engage vampires in a battle of attrition, but I could see that their healing powers had slowed down considerably. As powerful as vampires were, they were still restrained by the laws of nature. Their regenerative abilities relied on their mana – and when they ran out of mana, they would no longer be able to heal themselves.

Good. That meant we might just be able to…

"AAAAAAAAH!"

All of us glanced up at the bloodcurdling cry. Herman was sent hurtling across the courtyard, and he crashed in an undignified heap. Blood covered his battered body, marked with countless lacerations.

"Herman!" Irene cried and hurried over to heal him as best as she could, her golden mana suffusing his wounded body.

"Heh…is that all a Hero amounts to?"

Dread filling our hearts, we turned and watched Vincent Lucard approach. The lord of vampires was leisurely twirling his crimson spear in his hand. Licking the blood off his face, he then flicked a finger. Hundreds of blood stakes streaked toward us.

Gritting my teeth, I jumped forward and conjured an ice barrier. Irene was too occupied with healing Herman at this time to protect us, so I took over. The blood stakes shattered the wall of frost, but they ended up being frozen and fell to the ground, breaking into pieces.

"Oh? Interesting." Vincent studied me, a grin curling his lips.

"What do we do now!?" Bradley demanded, holding his axe with both hands. I could hear the fear in his trembling voice.

It was Herman who answered, and he sounded even more afraid than Bradley.

"R…retreat!" he ordered. "We…we can't win! The enemy is too strong! We have to withdraw!"